Talk

Hosea 4

The Lord Accuses Israel

4:1 Hear the word of the Lord, O children of Israel,for the Lord has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land.There is no faithfulness or steadfast love,and no knowledge of God in the land;2 there is swearing, lying, murder, stealing, and committing adultery;they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed.3 Therefore the land mourns,and all who dwell in it languish,and also the beasts of the fieldand the birds of the heavens,and even the fish of the sea are taken away.

4 Yet let no one contend,and let none accuse,for with you is my contention, O priest.5 You shall stumble by day;the prophet also shall stumble with you by night;and I will destroy your mother.6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge;because you have rejected knowledge,I reject you from being a priest to me.And since you have forgotten the law of your God,I also will forget your children.

7 The more they increased,the more they sinned against me;I will change their glory into shame.8 They feed on the sin of my people;they are greedy for their iniquity.9 And it shall be like people, like priest;I will punish them for their waysand repay them for their deeds.10 They shall eat, but not be satisfied;they shall play the whore, but not multiply,because they have forsaken the Lordto cherish 11 whoredom, wine, and new wine,which take away the understanding.12 My people inquire of a piece of wood,and their walking staff gives them oracles.For a spirit of whoredom has led them astray,and they have left their God to play the whore.13 They sacrifice on the tops of the mountainsand burn offerings on the hills,under oak, poplar, and terebinth,because their shade is good.Therefore your daughters play the whore,and your brides commit adultery.14 I will not punish your daughters when they play the whore,nor your brides when they commit adultery;for the men themselves go aside with prostitutesand sacrifice with cult prostitutes,and a people without understanding shall come to ruin.

15 Though you play the whore, O Israel,let not Judah become guilty.Enter not into Gilgal,nor go up to Beth-aven,and swear not, “As the Lord lives.”16 Like a stubborn heifer,Israel is stubborn;can the Lord now feed themlike a lamb in a broad pasture?

17 Ephraim is joined to idols;leave him alone.18 When their drink is gone, they give themselves to whoring;their rulers dearly love shame.19 A wind has wrapped them in its wings,and they shall be ashamed because of their sacrifices.

Hosea 5

Punishment Coming for Israel and Judah

5:1 Hear this, O priests!Pay attention, O house of Israel!Give ear, O house of the king!For the judgment is for you;for you have been a snare at Mizpahand a net spread upon Tabor.2 And the revolters have gone deep into slaughter,but I will discipline all of them.

3 I know Ephraim,and Israel is not hidden from me;for now, O Ephraim, you have played the whore;Israel is defiled.4 Their deeds do not permit themto return to their God.For the spirit of whoredom is within them,and they know not the Lord.

5 The pride of Israel testifies to his face;Israel and Ephraim shall stumble in his guilt;Judah also shall stumble with them.6 With their flocks and herds they shall goto seek the Lord,but they will not find him;he has withdrawn from them.7 They have dealt faithlessly with the Lord;for they have borne alien children.Now the new moon shall devour them with their fields.

8 Blow the horn in Gibeah,the trumpet in Ramah.Sound the alarm at Beth-aven;we follow you, O Benjamin!9 Ephraim shall become a desolationin the day of punishment;among the tribes of IsraelI make known what is sure.10 The princes of Judah have becomelike those who move the landmark;upon them I will pour outmy wrath like water.11 Ephraim is oppressed, crushed in judgment,because he was determined to go after filth.12 But I am like a moth to Ephraim,and like dry rot to the house of Judah.

13 When Ephraim saw his sickness,and Judah his wound,then Ephraim went to Assyria,and sent to the great king.But he is not able to cure youor heal your wound.14 For I will be like a lion to Ephraim,and like a young lion to the house of Judah.I, even I, will tear and go away;I will carry off, and no one shall rescue.

15 I will return again to my place,until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face,and in their distress earnestly seek me.

Hosea 6

Israel and Judah Are Unrepentant

6:1 “Come, let us return to the Lord;for he has torn us, that he may heal us;he has struck us down, and he will bind us up.2 After two days he will revive us;on the third day he will raise us up,that we may live before him.3 Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord;his going out is sure as the dawn;he will come to us as the showers,as the spring rains that water the earth.”

4 What shall I do with you, O Ephraim?What shall I do with you, O Judah?Your love is like a morning cloud,like the dew that goes early away.5 Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets;I have slain them by the words of my mouth,and my judgment goes forth as the light.6 For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice,the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

7 But like Adam they transgressed the covenant;there they dealt faithlessly with me.8 Gilead is a city of evildoers,tracked with blood.9 As robbers lie in wait for a man,so the priests band together;they murder on the way to Shechem;they commit villainy.10 In the house of Israel I have seen a horrible thing;Ephraim's whoredom is there; Israel is defiled.

11 For you also, O Judah, a harvest is appointed,when I restore the fortunes of my people.

Hosea 7

7:1 When I would heal Israel,the iniquity of Ephraim is revealed,and the evil deeds of Samaria;for they deal falsely;the thief breaks in,and the bandits raid outside.2 But they do not considerthat I remember all their evil.Now their deeds surround them;they are before my face.3 By their evil they make the king glad,and the princes by their treachery.4 They are all adulterers;they are like a heated ovenwhose baker ceases to stir the fire,from the kneading of the doughuntil it is leavened.5 On the day of our king, the princesbecame sick with the heat of wine;he stretched out his hand with mockers.6 For with hearts like an oven they approach their intrigue;all night their anger smolders;in the morning it blazes like a flaming fire.7 All of them are hot as an oven,and they devour their rulers.All their kings have fallen,and none of them calls upon me.

8 Ephraim mixes himself with the peoples;Ephraim is a cake not turned.9 Strangers devour his strength,and he knows it not;gray hairs are sprinkled upon him,and he knows it not.10 The pride of Israel testifies to his face;yet they do not return to the Lord their God,nor seek him, for all this.

11 Ephraim is like a dove,silly and without sense,calling to Egypt, going to Assyria.12 As they go, I will spread over them my net;I will bring them down like birds of the heavens;I will discipline them according to the report made to their congregation.13 Woe to them, for they have strayed from me!Destruction to them, for they have rebelled against me!I would redeem them,but they speak lies against me.

14 They do not cry to me from the heart,but they wail upon their beds;for grain and wine they gash themselves;they rebel against me.15 Although I trained and strengthened their arms,yet they devise evil against me.16 They return, but not upward;they are like a treacherous bow;their princes shall fall by the swordbecause of the insolence of their tongue.This shall be their derision in the land of Egypt. (ESV)